New Relic APM vs Splunk APM

New Relic APM7.9Visit Splunk APM6.6Visit

Higher score New Relic APM #3 in Application Performance & Observability - Enterprise Software 7.9/10 Free plan · paid from $10/user/mo Free plan✓ 1 of 4 features Visit New Relic

vs

Splunk APM #8 in Application Performance & Observability - Enterprise Software 6.6/10 Paid ✓ 1 of 4 features Visit Splunk

• New Relic APM fits best

  Teams needing broad APM with a free starting tier

• Splunk APM fits best

  Teams needing tracing with continuous code profiling

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Side by side

Feature	New Relic APM 7.9/10 Visit ↗	Splunk APM 6.6/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	7.9	6.6
Ranking	#3 in Application Performance & Observability - Enterprise Software	#8 in Application Performance & Observability - Enterprise Software
Best for	Teams needing broad APM with a free starting tier	Teams needing tracing with continuous code profiling
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Paid
Starting price	Not published	Not published
Free plan	✓ (best)	—
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Tickets, Docs, Community	Docs
Integrations	780+ integrations	100+ integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features New Relic APM 1/4 · Splunk APM 1/4
Distributed tracing	✓	✓
Application monitoring	Not published	Not published
Log management	Not published	Not published
Synthetic monitoring	Not published	Not published
Specs
Deployment options	Not published	Not published
Data retention	Not published	Not published
Our review
Pros	Follows transactions and distributed traces across services Service maps connect application, database, host, and service relationships Free tier includes 100 GB monthly ingest and access to 50+ capabilities	Full-fidelity trace analysis with search and span waterfall views Service maps show dependencies across instrumented and inferred services AlwaysOn Profiling covers CPU and memory in Java, .NET and Node.js
Cons	Free tier includes only one full platform user Standard is limited to five full platform users Usage-based pricing can include both user and ingest or compute charges	No free plan is established for APM App & Infra and End-to-End are $60 and $75 per host monthly on annual billing Real User Monitoring appears in End-to-End, not the App & Infra tier
Our verdict	New Relic APM helps engineering teams monitor application and service performance and investigate slowdowns or failures. Its coverage spans service health, transaction and database query traces, distributed traces, error tracking, alerts,… Read the review →	Splunk APM monitors distributed application availability and performance through trace and span collection. It is suited to teams investigating microservices and complex application environments, especially those that need to connect… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• New Relic APM — where it wins

  • Follows transactions and distributed traces across services
  • Service maps connect application, database, host, and service relationships
  • Free tier includes 100 GB monthly ingest and access to 50+ capabilities

  Where it doesn't

  • Free tier includes only one full platform user
  • Standard is limited to five full platform users
  • Usage-based pricing can include both user and ingest or compute charges

• Splunk APM — where it wins

  • Full-fidelity trace analysis with search and span waterfall views
  • Service maps show dependencies across instrumented and inferred services
  • AlwaysOn Profiling covers CPU and memory in Java, .NET and Node.js

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan is established for APM
  • App & Infra and End-to-End are $60 and $75 per host monthly on annual billing
  • Real User Monitoring appears in End-to-End, not the App & Infra tier

• New Relic APM7.9/10 · Free plan · paid from $10/user/mo

  Broad APM coverage with a perpetual free tier and usage-based costs.

  Visit New RelicFull verdict →
• Splunk APM6.6/10 · Paid

  Distributed tracing, service maps and continuous profiling, with paid plans starting at $60 per host monthly.

  Visit SplunkFull verdict →